


Exploration

by Longlivemystories



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Fluff, small amount of Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 23:56:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11368305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longlivemystories/pseuds/Longlivemystories
Summary: Natalie has a hard time sleeping and is constantly falling asleep on Nick. He appreciates the sentiment and wants to show it.





	Exploration

Natalie had a bad habit of staying up days at a time. She never really seemed tired, but if you paid close enough attention to her heart-shaped face, dark shadows were starting to form under her big blue eyes and it worried Nick.

He didn't pay enough attention to her needs, he thought. He didn't need sleep unlike his companion, therefore forgot constantly that she needed it. He loved having her company around the detective agency, but he supposed he shouldn't be staying up all night long to work on a case when Natalie was there. Sometimes he became aggravated at the thought of forgetting all about Natalie's human bodily needs, and then he just felt awful for asking her to help him on something he knew would take hours to complete. He'd caught himself a few times, suddenly saying something playfully about needing to plug himself in for the night. Of course this only served to confuse the survivor, so he just said he wanted to cuddle, which they weren't able to do often anymore.

When they first started their relationship, it was every night with those two. She loved the company and he simply loved to see her relaxed and comfortable. He loved even more when she woke up every morning after they'd stayed together only to bury her face into his faded white button-up and sigh contently, arm draped across his stomach.

Now, although Preston meant well, he'd been loading her with settlements to save, Raiders and Super Mutants to kill and hell even the occasional Deathclaw being a menace. This of course prevented the couple from seeing much of each other, as even though Nick insisted on joining her, she'd remind him of the agency and have Dogmeat tag along instead. He was always unsure, however the peck on the cheek from the survivor was enough to make him smile. She always came back, always. Dogmeat made sure of that even if he had to drag her by the collar of her shirt, which he had to do one time. A bomb have exploded within a close proximity to her and she'd been knocked unconscious, not by the blast itself but by her head impacting with the brick wall behind her. That little incident had scared everyone, but she turned out all right for the most part.

He shook his head, not wanting to think about that time as it hurt his chest. The synth continued reading through the case for the umpteenth time before looking over at Natalie, who had been leaning against him, reading and was now full on slumped against him, book threatening to fall to the floor. He chuckled lightly, taking a second to tuck some stray hairs behind her ear with care. He knew she wanted to stay up with him and he was too enveloped in his work to say no. Good thing she was short or his old body might have a harder time carrying her up the stairs. Before that could even happen, he had to figure out how to pick her up without waking her.

The detective moved the arm that was being laid upon and she slumped into his lap, nearly hitting her head against the desk if he hadn't caught her. He let out a soft sigh, grateful that his reflexes hadn't failed him yet. He smiled down at her, head turned away so that her neck and partial collarbone were exposed. Nick felt so honored that she would stay up with him, listening to him curse under his breath and grumble his annoyances. He was silent, still for a moment before reaching down and tentatively kissing Natalie's collarbone.

He froze when he heard the soft moan hum from her throat and nearly dropped her from surprise. They'd never really done anything that could be considered sexual save for the occasional peck on the lips and even a few full blown kisses, so that was clearly something he wasn't used to, but wow was it cute. He smiled a little bit to himself and managed to carry her up the stairs without waking the survivor. Nick carefully laid her down and was turning to leave, however kicked the ashtray that he kept on the floor by his bed, causing it to clatter and wake Natalie up.

She blinked a few times, groggy from lack of sleep, but still startled. She looked up at Nick, rubbed her eyes, then looked up at him again.

"What's going on?" she murmured, looking around to see that she was in his bed.

"Ah... you fell asleep on me while I was working on my case. Figured it'd be more comfortable for you to sleep here instead," he explained, placing the ashtray back in it's rightful place.

She looked up at him for seemingly a long moment, before just quietly nodding and shifting herself so that she was lying on her side, back facing him. He paused, unsure if he was reading that correctly. Did she want him to lie with her? Maybe she was just tired and he knew that that was her favorite side to sleep on, but... He gave in and laid on the bed behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her close and propped his head up with his skeletal hand. She seemed fairly surprised, but then snuggled back into him happily, arm resting on his.

"You don't have to be here if it's boring," she murmured after a moment.

Nick carefully took down her pony tail and wrapped the band around his own wrist. "It's never boring with you around," he murmured, leaning down and softly kissing her cheek.


End file.
